


These Unending Days

by stellacanta



Series: Cornyx week 2k19 [7]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 21:33:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19798192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta
Summary: Day 7 Prompts: “I’m not worth it.” | Laughter | Cor is actually immortalNyx had a beautiful laugh. He wouldn’t say that it sounded like bells, it didn’t, it was too rough and loud to be bell-like. It wasn’t a soft, bird-like titter. It didn’t even bubble like a brook, the way children’s laughs did.He had heard many laughs through the years, but he liked this particular one because it was vivacious and as lively as the man himself.Cor love that laugh and treasured each instance he heard it.





	These Unending Days

Cor awoke to the scent of smoke and a hazy blue sky. He grunted as he pushed himself off the ground riddled with corpses and damp with blood. There was a hole in his shirt where he had been pierced through with a lance. The fatal wound should have been there now just a faint scar. 

He brushed off the dirt and the dust and made his way towards the nearest town, not even a glance spared towards the dead bodies he had been laying with.

…

In the bar, he ordered a mug of the cheapest beer on the menu and drained the entire mug when it was placed in front of him. He grimaced when he was finished and out of the corner of his eye, he thought he could see the barkeep stare at him. Cor ignored the man and wiped his mouth on a sleeve. The beer tasted like shit, not that he was expecting it to taste any good. Cheap beer was cheap beer, he wasn’t ordering it for the taste.

He gestured for another mug when he caught the gaze of a passing waitress. He took the brief nod she gave him as an acknowledgement and he idly looked around the bar to take into account the rest of the patrons. It was the usual crowd, blue collar workers enjoying themselves at the end of the day. The tables were filled with men in huddled conversation and the bar itself was abuzz with the sound of human voices. He closed himself and lost himself in the ambiance, grounded himself in the noise. 

Here, there was life. Here there were people who were alive and breathing and talking, just as he was. There might be death outside of these walls, but within them, there was none. Cor nodded in thanks to the waitress when she set another mug of beer in front of him. He raised the mug, intent on draining this mug also in one go, when the sound of laughter reached his ears. He set the mug down.

It was a loud laugh, loud enough to cut above the din of all the voices speaking, and boisterous besides. The source of the laughter was a young man with small beaded braids, and a wide grin. The man was talking with what appeared to be two of his friends, a more heavyset man across from him, whose hair also had braids, and a woman next to him with her hair pulled up in a messy bun that seemed to have spawned another of itself. Before he realized what was happening, he had grabbed his mug and was walking towards the trio. 

The young woman noticed him first and slapped the laughing man’s arm when Cor pulled up a chair next to him. “Mind if I join you three?”

The man’s deep blue eyes (blue like the sea) crinkled slightly at the corners and he was given a smile as energetic as the laugh he had heard. “Not at all.”

…

He would have liked to say that he got to know the three, Nyx, Libertus, and Crowe, slowly through regular meetings at the bar. But the bar was no longer around, burned to the ground like the rest of the buildings in the village no doubt, and it hadn’t been even two months since he had first ordered beer from the place. War was like that, he thought as he stood on a cliff that overlooked Galahd, or what used to Galahd. The memory of cheap beer and good food would fade from the world as surely as the smoke from wreckage.

(If he closed his eyes and thought back, he could just remember how bad the beer was, and how delicious the food was. He wondered how long it would be until his memory of the place would begin to falter, and if it would even matter.)

Cor watched the smoke for a moment longer before he left the cliff to rejoin the convoy of trucks and vehicles headed toward the safety of Insomnia and its wall. 

Nyx, Libertus, and Crowe were huddled together on one of the trucks that passed him by. He wondered if they would ever smile again as they had when he first saw them.

…

It was in another bar in Insomnia that he heard that beautiful laugh again. When he turned around to see who he was, he couldn’t help but smile wryly when he saw that it was Nyx. The man looked to be in good shape, although he had lost track of him and his friends. Nyx was clutching his stomach and laughing at a red-headed man who was scowling at him. The red-headed man said something to Nyx that made him laugh only harder.

Cor smiled wryly to himself at the scene, but the smile faltered somewhat when he noticed the uniforms the pair wore. It was the kingsglaive uniform. He raised an eyebrow. The king had asked the refugees from Galahd to join Lucis’ newest force soon after the territory’s fall. However, he hadn’t thought that Nyx had any interest in joining the group. Apparently, he had been mistaken if Nyx’s uniform was anything to go by. 

He thought back to Nyx and his friends on the convoy to Insomnia. Cor really should have kept track of the three better, perhaps he should seek out Libertus and Crowe when he left the bar tonight. The thought lingered in the back of his head as he stood up and headed over to where Nyx was as soon as the red-headed man he was talking to left.

“Nyx.” The man looked up at the sound of his noise and gave Cor the same brilliant smile he had given him at their first meeting when he caught sight of him. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Cor!” He was pulled into a tight hug and he buried a smile into Nyx’s shoulder. “Oh, man, it’s good to see you again. How long has it been since we last met?” Nyx ushered him into the seat next to him and they fell into conversation like it hadn’t been months, if not a year, since they last had a proper conversation.

When the red-headed man showed up again, Nyx introduced them, and resumed their conversation as if nothing had happened. The red-headed man, Tredd, would occasionally butt in with his own comments. Cor hid a grin at how the two interacted. In some ways, the two were incredibly similar to one another, and got on each other’s nerves because of it.

That entire night, his eyes had been on Nyx. Tredd was nice enough, but Cor could not tear his gaze away from the man with the boisterous laugh he had met all those months ago. He clutched the scrap of paper Nyx had handed to him before he left. A fat raindrop fell on his nose and he looked up at the cloudy night sky with a rueful grin on his face. This time, for sure, he would keep in touch with Nyx.

…

Somehow, Cor had managed to make a good of an impression on Nyx as Nyx had on him. Nyx agreed to move in with him when he asked and their home was filled with Nyx’s little knick knacks and his lively laughter. Cor prized that laugh as much as he did Nyx’s company and, every night, he held Nyx tightly to him and begged the Astrals to not take Nyx away from him too soon.

“Please,” he begged into the cold night air. “I know the life of a soldier is short and dangerous, but just let him live to his natural lifespan. Please, it’s all I ask.” In his arms, Nyx slept away soundly, oblivious to his prayers and fears.

…

In the end, he clutched Nyx to him and begged him to keep his eyes open.  
“No Cor,” Nyx moaned as he looked up at him with tired, and fading, blue eyes. “I’m not worth it, leave me, get out of here.”

“No,” he insisted. “I’m staying here with you. You don’t deserve to die alone.” Nyx gave him a weak smile as his eyes slid closed for the final time. 

The astrals were as silent to his screams as they were to his prayers.


End file.
